Facebook appears to be relying on its age-old playbook even as antitrust regulators investigate the company for anti-competitive behavior.
The social media app, which is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and 46 states, has a history of cloning popular features from its buzzy competitors. The latest target? None other than the Clubhouse, the trendy new invitation-only audio app that allows users to speak to each other or listen in to the conversation in a chatroom.
Facebook executives reportedly told employees to create a similar product, which is now its earliest stages of development, according The New York Times. The news came just six days after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopped on Clubhouse to chat about remote work and augmented and virtual reality.
Zuckerberg isn’t the only tech exec to make an appearance on the app. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, and tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban all have gotten in on the action. Meanwhile, the app is rapidly gaining users and has become a hotspot for venture capitalists and techies. So it’s no surprise that Facebook may want a piece of that pie.
The company did the same thing after failing to buy Snapchat. Instead, it released a Stories, short video clips that disappear after 24 hours—a feature often credited to Snapchat. Facebook also made a TikTok-like feature when it released Reels in August.
In response to its reported work on a Clubhouse-like app, a Facebook spokesperson offered Fortune the following statement: “We’ve been connecting people through audio and video technologies for many years and are always exploring new ways to improve that experience for people.”
What is a surprise—but perhaps shouldn’t be—is Facebook’s decision to continue the engaging in behaviors that led to the antitrust investigation in the first place. Regulators are concerned that Facebook uses aggressive acquisition tactics including cloning other companies’ features as negotiation tactic. Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook has “adapted features that others have led in” after being grilled by the House Antitrust Subcommittee last year.
But so far, the strategy has worked in Facebook’s favor. Facebook continues to be the dominant social media app, generating $84.2 billion in revenue last year. Instagram, which would’ve become one of its biggest rivals had it not been acquired, has become one of its most valuable assets, and Stories are proving to be a promising feature for advertisers.
As the saying goes, imitation is the best form of flattery—that is unless Facebook is the imitator.
Danielle Abril
@DanielleDigest
[email protected]
